Skip to content

Need more speed? How about a RAID?

If you think your PC is not fit anymore for your needs, making a new one is not needed. You can just upgrade it. If you check around the internet for upgrade advice, a good processor and more RAM will be the #1 advice in every tech support forum you visit. Not that it is bad; a good cpu and a healthy 4GB RAM won’t hurt anyone, and you will be well served. You will have enough memory for almost anything.

But, what if you already have a good cpu and a fair amount of memory? If you are the average user, anything from a Intel Pentium E5300, a Core 2 Duo or an Athlon X2 5200+ is more than enough for your needs. If you are anyway from there, it’s better to look somewhere else.

In the last few years, cpus and memory sticks evolved greatly. From a DIMM 100MHz to a very fast DDR3 1066MHz, and from the Pentium 4 and Athlon XP to the Intel Core and AMD Phenom, it was a very big leap. But, there is a piece of hardware that have almost not evolved: the hard disks. They remained almost stopped in the last years, and are the biggest hole in any system. But, there is a way to improve hard disk performance, and that is what we will be doing.

A RAID is a junction of hard disks. You plug several hard disks in a same system, and make them work together. The system will recognize then as one disk. But, what you receive? Speed, security, or both. It all depends in the array you choose. The Most common are as follows:

- RAID 0: In RAID 0, all disks are treated as one big disks, that are equal to the smallest drive capacity multiplied for the number of drives. All files are split in pieces, called clusters, that are distributed between the disks. That way, when any file is accessed, all disks will be read and written at the same time, and the speed gain will be proportional to the number of disks in the array. Very good to give a big boost in a system. The drawback is that, if one of the disks crashes, every file stored will be lost.

- RAID 1: In this mode, all disks are treated as one, wich capacity is equal to the space of the smallest drive. If you have a 1TB and a 500MB array, it will be treated as one 500MB drive. This array saves one copy of each file in all drives, giving a good option for security. If a disk fail, you will aways have a backup. The drawback is that you will have only one drive with low capacity.

- RAID o+1: My favorite. It have the backup feature from RAID 1 and the Speed from RAID 0. I’d for for that array.

Well, now that you know what is and what can do for you a RAID, think carefully. A good array can improve greatly your overall system performance, and the hard disk is the slowest part of the system. So, before going to the market and buying a new expansive cpu, buy yourself a few HDs and mount a RAID. Just note that you will have to backup all of your data and do a clean install of your OS.

That’s all for now. Enjoy!

Posted in PC Building.

Tagged with , , , .

1 comment

By reverendo – February 20, 2010

Slow Windows 7 boot? What about your drivers?

Even came across a very slow Windows 7 boot? Well, I have experienced some problems with it. A plenty 2 minutes to boot up is not something a 2,7GHz dual core Athlon with 4GB RAM should do.

After messing around a little, testing some things here and there, I came across a conclusion: the culprit where my drivers and, mind you, they where the most up-to-date.

What happens is, when I install ATI drivers for my motherboard (a very good Asus M4A78, with the ATI 770 chipset), the Search Indexer service goes crazy, the system takes an eternity to load and everything is messed up. Not to mention that multitasking is almost impossible: the computer freezes at the most simple things.

If you came across something similar, the solution is not simple, but, there it is:

First: If you are doing or willing to do a fresh install of Windows 7, don’t add any ATI drivers, except video drivers. No PCI-E filters, chipset or southbridge drivers. Just video drivers. And, before you go installing things, open up your Control Panel and do all important updates available at Windows Update, and install all drivers available to your system. After that, go to the AMD/ATI site and download the latest Catalyst, and install just the video driver. The same should apply to other chipsets, such as NVidia or Intel. Just test your system before doing any driver install. If things are fine, keep the Windows native drivers. For the first time in life, they are good.

Second: Realtek network drivers should not be installed. Install the ones at Windows Update, and stick with them. Not tested with other network adapters brands, but as almost every board has a Realtek chip, it should be just fine. I have verified that those drivers slows the 7 boot time like hell, and that installing them from Windows Update works just fine.

Third: If you have a dual core Athlon (Athlon X2), download Dual Core Optimizer from the AMD website (link to download here ). Just make sure that no other program is installing when you install it. It tends to crash very easily is another install is in progress along with it. Dual Core Optimizer is essential to improve the multitasking and performance of your Athlon X2, not just in 7, but in any version of Windows.

Fourth, and last: Don’t mess too much with Windows settings. Don’t go out disabling things like crazy. It will most likely turn things bad to you. At most, turn off Search Indexer, Windows Firewall (if you followed my advice and installed a good firewall), Windows Defender (install Malwarebytes Anti Malware before doing that, download it here), Remote Registry and Fax. Disabling other services will most surely damage your system, or the results won’t be the desired. Don’t forget to download this nifty tool called Everything to replace Windows Search. It’s really good and works wonders! Download it here

Well, that sure solved my problem, so I hope it will work for you too. Till the next!

Posted in PC Maintenance.

Tagged with , , , .

No comments

By reverendo – February 15, 2010

BIOS Update made easy

If your system has an abnormal behavior, like turning off at will, sudden crashes or incompatibilities,  a BIOS update might be just what the doctor ordered.But, it is a though job: one step wrong and it all goes to hell. But, things can be easy too. Just follow my guide. First, go to your motherboard manufacturer website and download the latest BIOS and the flash tool. For an example, let’s say you have an Asus M4A78 board. Then, after doing that, you will have a m4a78.rom and an awflashxxx.exe file. Now, make sure you have one of the following: 1 – A floppy drive and an empty or ready to format diskette; or 2 – a Windows 98 CD. If you have an empty diskette and a floppy drive, go to Start > My Computer, right click in the Drive A: icon, select Format. Mark the “Create a MS-DOS Startup Disk”. Confirm. Wait untill the process is finished. Keep the diskette in the drive for now. Now, rename your bios to bios.rom (or bios.bin, don’t change the extension)(just select the bios file (normally a xxxx.rom or xxxxx.bin file), press F2 and change the name to “bios” (without the quotes). Also, rename the awflashxxx.exe (or whatever is your flash utility) to flash.exe. Copy the renamed files to your just created diskette. Eject the diskette, restart the system. Insert the diskette in the drive again. In the initial screen, the POST screen, press F8 (or the key that shows the BBS window), or press del to enter bios and them set the first boot device to “Floppy disk”. Press F10, them confirm to save the changes. After that, your computer will start in the old MS DOS OS. Them, type “flash.exe bios.rom” (without the quotes), confirm and wait. Your bios will be erased and then, rewritten. After that, the system will restart. Hit del at the POST screen, enter bios, search for the “Load Optimized Defaults” options, confirm, press F10 to save, confirm. Done! Via Windows 98 disk: the process is pretty much the same, except that you must put the two files in your C: drive. Right, put it in your C: drive, not in any folder.After that you need to restart the system with the Windows 98 disk inside your CD-ROM (use Windows 98SE, just in case), enter bios. Choose to boot from CD-ROM as first boot device. Type “cd c:\” and press ENTER. Then, type “C:\” and press ENTER. Now, the process is the same: type flash.exe bios.rom. If it says “File not found”, or something like that, just change the drive letter to D:\. Note that the typed command can change, the “flash.exe bios.rom” works for award flash and AMI chips. Enjoy!

Posted in PC Maintenance.

Tagged with .

No comments

By reverendo – December 27, 2009

Video Tutorial: Removing Viruses for Free


A very good Video Tutorial, showing how to remove viruses using the right tools. And, for free! Enjoy.

Posted in Security.

Tagged with , , .

No comments

By reverendo – December 20, 2009

UAC – It’s annoying, but protects you!

Even tried Windows Vista or 7?  Then, you must be familiar with a certain feature included in both, the User Account Control, a.k.a. UAC. Most users turn it off just after the first “Wellcome” screen appears. It’s an annoying pop-up window that alerts you whenever an application is trying to modify the disk or the registry. Looking that way, it’s just an annoyance. But, let’s look form another angle. It can be a good thing, and that’s what I will be showing now.

UAC is a system service that asks the administrator for permission whenever a program tries to modify anything in the system. If the permission is given, them the process is allowed to continue; if denied, the process is terminated. No files or registry keys will be modified. And, there is where it’s get interesting. Viruses won’t be allowed to install too, if you do not give them your OK. It’s a great way to prevent an infection, and it just asks you for a mouse movement and a click to take act. A fair price, don’t you think?

Don’t worry: you will get used to UAC warnings in no time; just give it a try, you won’t regret it. Combined with the proper security settings, UAC can be a great asset to your front line against malwares. Until the next!

Posted in Security.

Tagged with , , .

No comments

By reverendo – December 14, 2009

Use your firewall to your advantage

Firewalls are essential nowadays. I think that they are even more usefull than anti-virus. It’s because a unique feature that a firewall have: he can detect suspicious acts of any process in a system. Comodo Firewall is specially good at that: not only it can detect when a file is trying to access the web, but can detect registry changes. Very useful in case of autorun threats, it’s even more severe than Vista’s and 7’s UAC!

The how to: theres is no secret there. Just install Comodo Internet Security with the default features, except the Comodo Anti-Virus – it’s horrible at the moment. Every file attempting to access the web, or modify the registry, that is not a normal system or known program process will generate an alert. You can them block the process, if it is a suspicious one. It takes some knowledge to block the right processes, but you will get used to it in no time. Just be sure to not block system processes like system.exe, or the computer will crash.

Here are some common processes in any windows: system.exe, csrss.exe, lsass.exe, svchost.exe, alg.exe, ctfmon.exewmiprvse.exe, explorer.exe, usnsvc.exe, sched.exe, spoolsv.exe, services.exe, smss.exe. Note that some viruses disguise themselves like system processes, but with small differences in the name. An example is the csrss.exe (system process) and the trojan csrcs.exe. Others are very obvious, like the system32.exe virus.

A very effective way to differ one from another is to check the user that started the process. Open the task manager (see previous threads for how to do this), and check. It’s located under the “User name” column in the process tab. A true system process has the User Name set to “SYSTEM”. If you have a Issas.exe started by “Administrator” or “your user name”, it’s most likely a threat. Or, a very common one: a csrcs.exe process under “Administrator”.

Well, that’s it for now.

Posted in Security.

1 comment

By reverendo – December 10, 2009

Ubuntu – It can save your life

What to do when everything goes wrong, and Windows does not starts? Ubuntu can save your life! It’s mainly because you can launch Ubuntu from a CD, without any setup, backup your data and put everything in order again – a big help.

What you need: An Ubuntu iso file, that can be downloaded here , an empty CD-R, a CD/DVD Recorder (any of them is fine), and a Recorder software, like CD Burner XP (download here), or the recorder software bundled in a CD that cames with your drive (like Nero). Download the iso, burn it with your favorite software in a blank media.

When you need it, reboot your system with the Ubuntu CD that you just burned inside your drive. Make sure your computer is set to start form the CD-ROM. You can do that by starting your computer, and in the initial screen, hit the Del button until a blue screen (the BIOS configuration screen) is shown. Look for the “First boot device” option, and set it to CD ROM. Save by pressing F10 and press Enter, while selecting OK.

Now, your Linux Ubuntu is ready for use! When it starts, select your local language, then select “Start Ubuntu without any changes to system” . You are ready! You can use the system, backup your data, surf the web, enter messaging programs, and much more!

Posted in PC Maintenance.

3 comments

By reverendo – December 3, 2009

Computer Crash? Know the culprit!

Now I will share some precious info. When a system crash occurs, You can do some investigation and identify the cause. You just need google and a little customization in your Windows OS!

Let’s get to work them: First thing to do is to disable the automatic restart in Windows. By default, Windows reboot the system when a fatal error occurs. That is not interesting to us. Right click the “My Computer” icon in desktop (or in the Start Menu), choosing the “Properties” option. Go to the “Advanced” tab, then click in the “Configuration” button, under “Startup and Recovery”. Uncheck the “Restart automatically” option (or something like that). Click “Apply”, then “OK”. First step is done.

Now, Windows won’t reboot when a system fatal error occurs. When a Blue Screen of Death appears, it will be displayed. And, that is what we want. Somewhere in that BSOD, a line that will start with “STOP 0X….” can be found. That line just tells you what problem occurred! Just google for the first two codes in the STOP message, and you can see which problem occurred. Sweet, don’t you think?

Posted in PC Maintenance.

Tagged with , .

No comments

By reverendo – November 30, 2009

Problem with USB Pendrives or MP3?

Have you ever plugged a pendrive or mp3, and Windows cannot initialize it? Well, the problem, mind you, may be your motherboard! It’s fairly easy to solve it, just keep reading.

This problem may be related to a configuration in your BIOS. For default, modern motherboards have native support for USB 2.0 devices. USB 1.0/1.1 devices must be configured in your BIOS, in some cases.

The how to: Turn your computer on, and keep hitting the Del key. You will be taken to a blue screen. Now, search your BIOS for an option called “Legacy USB support”, or something like that. Normally, it’s located under the Advanced Bios Setup option. I say normally, because motherboard vendors can customize the BIOS, accordingly to the product line-up.

Once found, set the option to Enabled. If you have problems with USB mouse/keyboard, turn them on too. It’s disabled by default in most motherboards. Now, save your settings (normally, by pressing the F10 key; anyway, the last option in the horizontal line is where it’s located, but it may change). Once prompted if you want to save the settings and exit, select OK and hit ENTER. The computer will restart. And, that should do the trick! Easy, not? Until the next!

Posted in PC Maintenance.

Tagged with , , , .

No comments

By reverendo – November 22, 2009

Tutorial: Increase Your Computer Performance

Slow Computer? Thinking of buying new equipment? Wait! Did you know you can seriously improve your system speed, without wasting a penny? With a little effort, you can have a faster machine. Just do the following:

1 – Checking your free disk space: Full disks are a serious threat to system performance. With less space, Windows have trouble accessing files and managing the system virtual memory, which causes general slowdown. So, cleaning your System Disk (normally, the C: drive) will give you a great boost in speed and stability. Click in the Stat menu, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. Choose your C: drive (it’s the default option). Wait for the analysis. Check all options, except “Microsoft Office Installation files” and “Compact Old Files”. Go to the “More Options” tab, and Click in the Clean button under “System Restore”. When prompted, click “Yes”. Now, click OK. This shall open some space. You can also go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and uninstall any unwanted programs.

Another thing to check is what you are downloading via emule. Emule creates empty files of whatever you are downloading, even if the download is stopped. So, canceling stagnated downloads will free considerable space.  Make sure you delete any unused/unwanted files too.

2 – Compact files you are not going to use often: By doing so, a file will take less space, making things more comfortable inside your Hard Disk. Utilities like 7Zip can do some serious compression, packing files with impressive efficiency.

3 – Check what is starting up with your system: Many programs, when installed in a computer, put shortcuts in your computer to launch at system startup. While it makes that program load way faster, it will increase your cpu load, and make your startup slower. If you use very often that program or application, it may be a fair exchange. But, why hell would you want to always load some programs, like Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, at system start? To check what is loading with your windows, click Start, select Run. Type “msconfig” (without the quotes). Select Startup tab. There, all programs that load with your OS are listed. Uncheck any wanted entries, click “Apply”, and then “OK”. Reboot. It will load a little faster now.

4 –  If you have a slow cpu (like a Celeron), disable heavy visual themes: Yes, your desktop will suck. But, time is precious, and we do not want to waste it, right? It have little impact in Windows XP based systems, but does wonders in Vista/7 machines. Right click your desktop, choose “Personalize”, and select the “Vista default theme”. Its the same Vista look, but without the Aero. Or, if you are serious about it, use the Windows classic theme. Disabling the Windows Sidebar does wonders too, since it wastes about 40MB memory with just 2 Gadgets enabled, and if it’s a gadget that keeps refreshing (like a sideshow does), will save a lot of system resources. You can disable it in the same msconfig tool, just in the Services tab, unchecking Sidebar.

5 – Keep virtual threats out of your computer: Viruses, trojans and the like are loaded in system startup, kept in memory, and always scan what you do – what, obviously consumes precious resources. Scanning and eliminating virus and trojans is a good way to boost performance and staying secure. Follow my previous threads to learn how to eliminate virus and trojans from your system.

6 – Are your drivers up to date?: Even wondered what that bundled System Board CD/DVD, that came with your computer is for? That is your System Drivers. A driver is a little “program” that tells windows how he may use a system device, like a Video or Sound Card, for an example. They do an enormous boost to system performance! Keeping them up-to-date is essential. You can refer to your Motherboard manual for a list of all hardware bundled in your system board, or go to the manufacturer’s website, for the latest drivers and bios updates. Download them and install right away!

7 – Installing a new copy of Windows? Consider partitioning your Hard Drive: Partitions are isolated sections of a disk. It means you can have a partition for your Windows and Programs, and another for all the things you download form the web. That way, you will reduce the risk of getting a full C: drive, and disk fragmentation. If you can, having a second hard disk is highly recommended.

8 – Defragment your disk often: When you save a file to your local disk, it will be placed in the first space available. If that space is not sufficient, it will be divided in chunks, and be put in the next space, and so successively. When you need to load that file, the processor will have trouble finding all the pieces. So, putting all the pieces of the same file together is the best thing to do. For that purpose, windows have his own disk defragmenter – it’s under Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools. You can also download third-party defragers, like Iobit Smart Defrag, or JK Defrag. Both are very good.

Well, thats all for now. Come back for more!

Posted in PC Maintenance.

No comments

By reverendo – November 15, 2009